28/06/2021 ‘Defects’ in award-winning block threaten leaseholders with ruin : unitedkingdom

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Posted by u/steven-f 1 day ago

‘Defects’ in award-winning block threaten

leaseholders with ruin
thetimes.co.uk/articl... 
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pajamakitten · 1d
Dorset

The government either need to fund the full amount, which is far greater than £5bn if I
remember correctly, or force developers to pay for it. Those who bought these properties
did not choose the cladding, nor did they falsify safety records, there is no reason for them
to pay when they were sold houses that did not accurately meet safety standards.

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iinavpov · 1d
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steven-f OP · 1d

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28/06/2021 ‘Defects’ in award-winning block threaten leaseholders with ruin : unitedkingdom

Julia Kenyon’s block of flats won the highest award in British architecture. But she faces
bankruptcyover billsSearch   
for fire-safety work amid fears that homeowners  Free are
and taxpayers 
being ripped off in the building safety scandal.

“I’m bewildered,” said Kenyon, 42, a Cambridge University biologist.

This month she found out that the building at the Accordia development in Cambridge had
failed a façade survey after safety guidance was tightened in response to the 2017 Grenfell
fire. When that happens, flat owners cannot sell or get a mortgage unless they pay for
“defects” to be fixed. About 700,000 people are trapped in dangerous flats and three million
are in homes they cannot sell.

Accordia’s 166 homes, which won the Stirling Prize in 2006, “were previously not only
considered safe, but award-winning. If we are in this position, then I shudder to think where
this will stop nationwide — it has spiralled into ludicrosity,” Kenyon said.

A report on the nine-flat Glass Building, one of six blocks at the development, found that a
framework of thick oak beams supporting balconies needed to be replaced. This will require
rebuilding much of the block. A survey at the block next door said a similar beam framework
could remain.

Timber balconies must be removed from both blocks, to comply with guidance that external
walls should not spread fire. With only nine flats in her block and a wide staircase, the fire
risk was “minuscule” , making the recommended works “over the top”, Kenyon said.

Her parents, Chris and Pauline Kenyon, both 74, helped her buy the two-bedroom flat for
£350,000 in 2006 and hoped to live there in retirement. “I’m just so flaming mad about this,”
said Chris, a geologist. “My daughter looks like being hit with a bill for hundreds of
thousands, much of which doesn’t need to be done . . . There is no attempt to balance the
very, very low risk of fire with the certainty of mental health problems and complete
financial ruin.”

Pauline is considering buying the flat and declaring bankruptcy herself.

At 15 metres tall, the block cannot get a grant from the government’s £4.5 billion fund to
reclad blocks taller than 18 metres. Kenyon may get a state-backed loan capped at £50 a
month, but these are expected to cover cladding in smaller blocks, not structural changes.

The fund has allocated only 10 per cent of its £4.5 billion, although the deadline to complete
applications is this Wednesday. At this pace, it would take until 2028 to assign it all, research
by the Labour Party has found.

Labour wants ministers to set up an agency to take charge of the building safety scandal, as
the Australian state of Victoria has done. A “crack team” of government-appointed engineers
and experts would go block by block to decide what works are necessary, commission and
pay for them, and then sign off the building as safe. They would have legal powers to
pursue the companies responsible through the courts.

The party will use a parliamentary debate on Tuesday to call for the agency — among five
steps put forward by The Sunday Times to end the crisis.

Labour said the government’s reliance on private companies to end the crisis had made it
worse, leading to “spiralling costs, huge risk aversion, and firms taking advantage . . . to
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28/06/2021 ‘Defects’ in award-winning block threaten leaseholders with ruin : unitedkingdom

require expensive and potentially unnecessary works on an industrial scale, putting untold
homeowners’
pressure on  
 Searchfinances whilst milking the taxpayer”.   Free 
Lucy Powell, the shadow housing secretary, said: “Because there is no real risk measure in
the system, the amount of remediation works that people are being told need to be done to
get a mortgage or insurance are just ever growing.

“When no one is prepared to step forward and say, ‘I’m going to sign this building off as
safe’ because no one wants to have that indemnity, the people trapped in the middle of that
are leaseholders who can’t sell their homes.”

The fund has approved £428 million to help 338 blocks. Of the 2,820 buildings that applied a
year ago, 685 (24 per cent) have been found eligible and 5 per cent are still being
considered. A third have been rejected or withdrawn, and the rest did not supply enough
information, housing ministry figures show.

Full tenders must be submitted this week and work must start by September to qualify, and
as a result many blocks risk missing out on taxpayers’ help. The housing ministry has said it
will process applications beyond the deadlines on a “case by case basis”.

It said: “Building owners and managers have statutory obligations to get on and make their
buildings and residents safe. They have had plenty of advice and time to enable them to
plan the works.”

The fund, it added, was “progressing applications as quickly as possible and it is

disappointing so many building owners have been unable to provide the basic information
we need”.

Encore Estates, which manages Kenyon’s block, said it was bound by government guidance.
Reports by independent experts “recommended that the timber elements of the building
are replaced” with materials of limited combustibility.

The company added that it would appoint a consultant to price and review options for
works. Encore did not manage the building next door and so could not comment on that.

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Accordia’s main architect, was approached for comment.

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WhapXI · 13h
York

This took me a while to fully parse, probably because it’s much too early. It’s not actually
“her” block of flats. She just owns one of them, which her parents helped her buy. But for
some reason they’re kind of implying she’s liable to pay for the whole building to be
rebuilt. No word about the other tenants/flat owners, nor any word about the
development company who presumably still own and manage the building itself? But the
article doesn’t mention if she owns the flat as a leasehold or freehold. Very strange
article. Seems like a lot of info missing.

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strolls · 1d

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28/06/2021 ‘Defects’ in award-winning block threaten leaseholders with ruin : unitedkingdom

It seems to be quite a quaint development, with totally different appearance from another
angle, butthese Search
appear to be the beams in question.     Free 
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WolfThawra · 4h
London (ex Cambridgeshire)

Is it just me, or does the article not really state what the specific issue is? Why do they
need to be replaced?

Independently of that, I quite enjoy the oak beam look btw.

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vaivai22 · 20h

Obscene that the developers or cladding company aren’t on the hook for this.

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hisky0 · 23h

Modern architects win through again

Oh wait

They're all shite

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Equivalent_Roll6917 · 1d
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